Satin has left us for the bridge :'(

One of our SCAMPS has sadly left us for the bridge.
Please find below, Penny's memories of Satin:

"I am very sad to have to tell you all that our dear Satin Piggyfriend has left us. She was our oldest Piggyfriend, at six years plus.

She actually passed away just before we were due to go away on holiday but I was too upset to compose her obituary at the time. Now I feel that I can write objectively and give her the tribute that she so richly deserves.

She came to be a Piggyfriend in 2005 along with her friends, Ping and Truffle when they were left at Cavies' Castle, our Rodentologists, to be rehomed when their original Slave had too many health and domestic problems to be able to keep her piggies. There were three others, who had already been reserved on the day that I visited so Satin, Ping and Truffle came home with me.

Satin was a kind and gentle piggy, whose pigture can be seen on the lovely SCAMPS site http://scamps-gpdd.blogspot.com/ She is the first piggy on the site, in the "Older posts" section and, therefore, the final piggy on the Blog. Clicking on her name on the list of members gives the error message 404 File Not Found. I expect that this bit is still under construction.

When she sadly lost her best friend, Ping, to bone cancer, she was very lonely but very soon Hope and Halloween needed rescuing so Hope came to live with her. Hope was very hungry and scared, only ever having been housed with a huge rabbit and found security hiding behind plump and cuddly Satin. She sooned learned from Satin that she was in a safe place and became a very friendly piggy too. She is missing her friend and sits up close to the wire separating her pen from the neighbouring pens so that she can talk to the occupants. I have considered moving her into one of these pens. On one side live Lilac and Casanova. They are quiet gentle little piggies, whereas Hope is big and bouncy. On the other side are Minstrel, Lavender and Sapphire, who lost a lot of weight when she had to be syringe fed during a nasty throat infection. Hope could win a gold medal in an eating contest so it would not be fair to Sapphire to introduce too much competition at the moment but maybe later. Sapphire is doing well but I don't want to jeopardise her chances by introducing a piggy who could eat for England.

I have always had several pens of sows, into which a bereaved piggy could be introduced but so many of my recent rescues have been boars.

I am also going to have some piggies from the big Cavies' Castle rescue, when they are ready to be rehomed, so maybe a friend or two for Hope will be amongst them.

When I first took Satin home, my Rodentologists warned me about the possibility of her succumbing to Osteodystrophy, the scourge of the satin breed of piggy. I already knew of this disease but read up all about it at the time. As the years passed, I seriously began to believe that she could be the only satin in Europe that was free of this insidious illness.

Most satins are diagnosed with OD at around 12-18 months, some even earlier, so when she reached her sixth birthday it did seem possible that she was one of the lucky ones. Sadly, in June this year, she started to walk very stiffly, a symptom of OD. Hoping against hope that this was arthritis, I took her for a checkup only to have my worst fears confirmed. She had OD. She carried on as usual for the next three months. I gave her painkillers just in case she needed them but she continued to eat up really well. OD affects the jaw and makes eating difficult.

Then she began to find eating harder. She could eat strips of veggies and I was syringe feeding her ( which she loved ) until we were due to go away. I arranged for her to board at Cavies' Castle along with Sapphire, so that they could both be syringe fed without my son, the pigsitter, having to cope with this as well as looking after the rest of the Piggyfriends.

Then one morning, Sapphire decided that she could eat for herself, albeit slowly but Satin didn't want to eat at all, not even the syringe mix. She just wanted to sleep and I could see that her time had sadly come. She passed away very peacefully in her sleep.

I am so happy that she made it to a good old age and managed to stave off the OD for so long. She was a lovely, cuddly pig and is sadly missed by us all, as are all the departed Piggyfriends.

I have buried her in the garden next to her beloved Ping and Truffle, who came along with her but was an intact boar and had his own home. I have planted pink cyclamen over them all.

I was going to write a bit more about OD for anyone who might be interested or who might have a satin piggy and be unaware of the consequences. I don't know how widespread this disease is on other continents but there are very few piggies in England who are not affected by it. Our Rodentologists have many piggy patients who are sufferers but different strains of satins in other countries might be less susceptible to OD. As I have written too much already I am going to suggest that you look at this link
http://www.oginet.com/Cavies/satin.htm This is written by Desiree, a friend of our Janneke. She has studied OD extensively and is involved with research into the problem. Janneke's piggy, Yaya, also has OD so I fervently hope that future research is fruitful.

Goodbye lovely Satin. Such an adorable, kind and cuddly piggy. Reunited with Ping and Truffle again at the Rainbow Bridge.

Penny and the sad Piggyfriends."